Hearts defender Craig Halkett believes lessons can be learnt from their Europa League Conference league mauling at the hands of Istanbul Basaksehir.
The Jambos stopper watched on from the sidelines as his team suffered a sobering 4-0 loss at Tynecastle due to a hamstring injury. The defeat against the Turks was a night to forget as European group stage football returned to the capital. Next up is pot four side of the group RFS Riga, who despite being the lowest ranked side the section, they managed a point against Italian cracks Fiorentina, by securing a draw in Florence.
But Halkett hopes his Hearts side, who are third seeds, can step up and prove they can compete on the continent by getting points on the board in Latvia on Thursday.
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Speaking to the Daily Record, he said: “We knew from the minute the draw was made we’d be facing teams of a high level and Thursday was an example of that.
“Nobody underestimated the size of the challenge as it’s been 18 years since we’ve been involved at the group stage of a European competition. It’s all about enjoying this journey, we want to put as many points on the board as possible but we also need to make sure we enjoy the experience and learn as much as we can from it.
“Thursday night will be another experience and we want to try and make it the starting point in claiming as many points as we can. Istanbul were the pot one team in our group, getting a result against them was always going to be difficult and because the game was at Tynecastle we hoped for the best.
“Everyone who was at the game saw how good they were as they more than showed their qualities. Now we are going away to Latvia to face the pot four team and we were seeded above them so these are probably the two games which we will look at as being the best opportunity for us to pick up points.
“That said, we can also look at some of the results from across Europe on Thursday night and see the top seeds can struggle against those in the lowest seeded pot. Riga managed to earn a draw in Italy against Fiorentina so they’re no mugs themselves, we know how difficult it’s going to be.”
Halkett, who sustained a hamstring injury in the early moments of the Europa League play off against Zurich, could prove a major boost for Neilson’s side who have struggled in the weeks without him.
A poor run of form included Hearts being dumped out of the Premier Sports Cup, as well as being beaten by Halkett’s former side Livingston in the league.
He added: “We’ll now have another week of rest before this game and we’ll also get the chance to look back on the game against Istanbul and do the analysis and find out exactly where we went wrong.
“All of that can only help us as we go through this sticky patch. The recent results haven’t been great but the vibe among all of the boys in the dressing room is still really positive.”
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